In the United States, 2024 brought a collection of refinements in the country’s arbitration jurisprudence, with courts issuing decisions that reinforced federal pro-arbitration policies and clarified important procedural issues for investment and commercial arbitration. Below, we explore four pivotal cases that shaped the arbitration landscape this year—first from the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and then…
The doctrine of sovereign immunity has long been a cornerstone of international law, shielding states from enforcement actions. Sovereign immunity can be subdivided in two: immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from execution. While immunity from jurisdiction means that domestic courts are prevented to hear and decide cases involving another sovereign state, immunity from execution precludes…
The third updated edition of the “Report on compliance with investment treaty awards by States” (the “2024 Report”) was released in November 2024. The Report was conducted in the summer of 2024 by the present author (see for coverage of the 2023 version of the report here and here). In light of the termination of intra-EU international…
Keeton v. Tesla addresses a significant question: whether a section of the California Arbitration Act (CAA) is preempted by the United States Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The California Court of Appeal concluded that Section 1281.98 of the CAA is not preempted by the FAA, although, due to procedural nuances under the California Rules of Court,…
In a pivotal ruling on August 16, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“Appellate Court”) addressed whether intra-EU arbitration awards issued under the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) are enforceable in U.S. federal courts. With Spain facing over $390 million in awards, the Appellate Court confirmed that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to…
The chasm between the Section 1782 and arbitration worlds just got wider. In Webuild S.p.A. v. WSP USA Inc. (“Webuild S.p.A.”), the Second Circuit determined that a tribunal in an arbitration administered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) was not a “foreign or international tribunal” under Section 1782, the U.S. federal…
On March 11, 2024, in Swinerton Builders, Inc. v. Argonaut Insurance Company, a district court in the Ninth Circuit found a valid arbitration agreement between the contractor, Swinerton Builders, Inc. (“Swinerton”), and the non-signatory insurer, Argonaut Insurance Co. (“Argonaut”), of its subcontractor, Northern Services, Inc. (“Northern”). No. 23-CV-4158 (DMR), 2024 WL 1057473 (N.D. Cal. Mar….
The second front can open in the United States (“U.S.”) for over 50 investment arbitration claims against the Kingdom of Spain (“Spain”) that are worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars combined. The ongoing disputes spotlighted the continuing controversy between the decisions of the European Union’s (“EU”) highest court and international investment tribunals. The cases…
In McConnell v. Advantest Am., Inc., the 4th District Court of Appeal in California (the “Court”) vacated an arbitral order compelling nonparties to appear at a discovery hearing for the sole purpose of receiving documents allegedly in their possession. 92 Cal. App. 5th 596. The subpoenas asked the nonparties to produce their communications with the…
In 2023, the United States courts expanded the role of international arbitration under existing law and wrestled with the application of new arbitration law and fact patterns. This post reviews some highlights and looks forward to developments anticipated during 2024. At the top, the United States Supreme Court delivered significant rulings in Coinbase Inc,. v….
Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., 142 S. Ct. 2078 (June 13, 2022), certain Circuits permitted parties to private international commercial arbitrations to avail themselves of U.S. discovery proceedings via 28 U.S.C. §1782 (“§1782” or “Section 1782”). The Supreme Court’s decision in ZF Automotive removed that option….
On 22 June 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion in the combined cases of Yegiazaryan v. Smagin et al. and CMB Monaco v. Smagin et al., Case Nos. 22-381 & 22-383 (U.S.). The case resolves divergent lower appellate rulings in the United States over whether a non-U.S. domiciliary may sustain a…
In an important decision upholding the finality of awards and party autonomy in international commercial arbitration, a divided three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently held in Compañía de Inversiones Mercantiles SA v. Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua SAB de CV (58 F.4th 429 (10th Cir. 2023)) that recognition of…
On 10 January 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal (“Paris CoA”) set aside the 50+ million USD UNCITRAL award rendered in the dispute between Komstroy (before Energoalians LLC, and now Stileks Scientific and Production Firm LLC (“Stileks”)) and the Republic of Moldova. The referring court applied the ruling rendered by the Court of Justice of…
2022 was a busy year for the United States Supreme Court’s arbitration docket. The Court spent significant time defining the role of federal courts in arbitration-related litigation: it curbed Section 1782 discovery in support of international arbitration, limited the preferential treatment given to arbitration over litigation, protected the right to individualized arbitration, and limited the…
28 U.S.C. § 1782(a) allows U.S. federal district courts to order discovery against any person or entity “found” in the U.S. “for use” in a proceeding in a “foreign or international tribunal” upon application by “any interested person.” In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court in Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. held that the…
The permissive language of Article V(1)(e) of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”) continues to tease parties challenging recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards with the prospects of success. That is the case for Nigeria in its latest efforts to fend off the confirmation of a…
Kluwer Arbitration Blog has given ample attention over the years to 28 U.S.C. § 1782—the US federal statute authorizing federal district courts to order individuals and entities within their districts to provide evidence to “interested person[s]” for use “in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here). …
Benno Kimmelman is an independent arbitrator and active in the New York arbitration community. He teaches international arbitration and international litigation courses at Brooklyn Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and American University’s Washington College of Law. Edna Sussman is a New York-based arbitrator and mediator. She is the Distinguished ADR Practitioner in Residence at…
On November 16, 2021, during New York Arbitration Week 2021, several committees of the New York City Bar Association hosted a panel discussion entitled “Dispelling Myths: Enforcement of Latin American Arbitration Awards in the United States and U.S. Arbitration Awards in Latin America,” which focused on enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in the United States,…
In CLMS Mgmt. Servs. et al. v. Amwins Brokerage et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered whether a state law (by operation of the federal McCarran-Ferguson Act, which gives states the authority to regulate the business of insurance) voiding arbitration agreements in insurance contracts reverse-preempted Article II, Section 3 of…
John Steinbeck’s classic novella, “Of Mice and Men,” took a modern day form in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week – appropriately enough, for purposes of this blog, in an arbitration matter. As others have commented on social media, during oral argument in Badgerow v. Walters, Case No. 20-1143 (U.S. S. Ct.), the Supreme…
Much has been written about the U.S. Supreme Court case Servotronics Inc. v. Rolls-Royce PLC, which concerns the scope of 28 U.S.C. § 1782 (“Section 1782”). This interest is not surprising given this was set to be the first time in 17 years that the U.S. Supreme Court (the “Court”) would consider the scope of…
The United States Supreme Court’s June 2020 decision in GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC (“GE Energy“) made clear that, under U.S. law, a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement may invoke equitable estoppel to compel arbitration under Article II(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of…
